PhD Program

• Candidates should have selected a thesis topic by the time of their comprehensive exams and should submit a detailed thesis proposal after the completion of comprehensive exams (proposal forms are available upon request in the graduate office). After the proposal has been approved by all members of the student’s committee, it should be sent to the Director of Graduate Studies for final approval on the basis of the committee’s assessment. The dissertation proposal needs to be completed and approved by ninety (90) days after the completion of the comprehensive examination.

• The doctoral thesis committee will consist of the chairperson (who must be a member of the English graduate faculty), at least two members of the English graduate faculty whose special fields of interest bear some relation to the topic of the thesis, and one member of the graduate faculty from outside the department. Please note that dual title degree programs have additional requirements for committee composition. (For additional information on the membership of the doctoral thesis committee, consult the Graduate Degree Programs Bulletin .)

• Students should make sure that every member of the committee is involved in each stage of the project–from the initial proposal to the final oral defense. Students should consult with their advisers to decide whether to convene the entire committee for periodic conferences as the thesis develops.

• Upon completion of the thesis but before it is in final typed form, an oral defense should be scheduled by the committee chair, in consultation with the student and the Director of Graduate Studies, at least two weeks in advance with the Graduate Secretary (using an Exam Request Form which is also filed with The Graduate School). Before the oral defense is scheduled, all members of the thesis committee must agree that the thesis is complete and ready to be defended. After a successful defense, a clean copy of the thesis should be delivered to the department head for his or her signature.

• It is the responsibility of the chair of the thesis committee to make sure that changes and recommendations agreed upon during the oral defense are carried out by the student. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that the copies of the thesis submitted to the Graduate School and to the English Graduate Office are absolutely clean and free of error.

This examination is taken after the thesis has been submitted to the thesis committee, but before the thesis has been typed in final form. The thesis committee acts as the examining committee. Satisfactory performance in this exam is necessary for acceptance of the thesis. The examination is oral and open to the public. Please note the following Graduate School policy in regard to the final oral examination:

The State of the Doctoral Thesis at the Time of the Final Oral Examination

Both the thesis director and the student are responsible for assuring the completion of a draft of the thesis and for adequate consultation with members of the thesis committee well in advance of the oral examination. Major revisions to the thesis should be completed before this examination. The dissertation should be in its final draft, with appropriate notes, bibliography, tables, etc., in place at the time of the oral examination; both the content and style should be correct and polished when this final draft is in the hands of the committee. Again, there should be an adequate period of time (at least two weeks) between the delivery of the final draft of the thesis to committee members and the scheduled oral examination.

Graduate School Requirements for Residency and Credits

There is no required minimum of credits or semesters of study, but over some twelve-month period during the interval between admission to candidacy and completion of the PhD program the candidate must spend at least two semesters (which may include the semester in which the candidacy examination is taken) as a registered full-time student.

After a student has passed the comprehensive examination and met the two-semester residence requirement, no further registration for credit will be required by the Graduate School. However, status as a student must be maintained by registering continuously (for each semester, beginning with the first semester after both of the requirements mentioned above have been met) until the thesis is accepted by the doctoral committee. This registration may be for noncredit ENGL 601 or 611, with payment of the special thesis preparation fee; students who want to combine course work with thesis preparation must register for ENGL 600 or 611 (not 601 which is full-time thesis preparation ) plus course registration at the regular per-credit fee.

ALL STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR KNOWING THESE REQUIREMENTS, THE REGULATIONS AND PERTINENT PROCEDURES OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL AS SET FORTH IN THE GRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS BULLETIN, THE THESIS INFORMATION BULLETIN , AND THE GRADUATE HANDBOOK OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT. NOTHING IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT REQUIREMENTS SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD TO SUPERSEDE ANY REGULATIONS OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL.

The doctoral committee serves several functions: 1) to advise the student on all matters relating to his or her program; 2) to administer the comprehensive examination; and 3) to supervise and approve the doctoral dissertation. Every entering PhD student assembles a doctoral committee upon formal admission to candidacy (by passing the candidacy review). The committee bears the principal responsibility for guiding and assessing the student’s progress through the program.

The Guidelines for Doctoral Committees is designed to help faculty and students adjust to the department’s policy of establishing doctoral committees early in the PhD program. It should be read in conjunction with the Graduate School’s regulations concerning doctoral committees ( Graduate Degree Programs Bulletin ) and the English department’s general requirements and procedures for the PhD program.

I. Establishing the Committee

• Every entering student should begin to consider the field or combination of fields on which he or she wishes to focus. Soon after admission to the program, the student should arrange to meet with the graduate director or associate director to identify areas of interest and faculty who work in these areas. Penn State M.A.s are encouraged to begin this process as soon as they are admitted to the PhD; M.A.s from other institutions will begin the process early in the second semester in the program.
  
  
• By the end of the first year of the program, the student should have his or her doctoral committee assembled and one member of the committee identified as the chair. A committee consists of at least three members of the Department of English, and in accordance with Graduate School regulations, at least one graduate faculty member from another department. If the student is pursuing a PhD minor field, then the external member must be from that field. All students must file a form in the English Graduate Office establishing their committee by the end of their second semester in the PhD program. After choosing a committee, the student should then meet with committee members to develop a specific course of study leading to the comprehensive examination and subsequent research. Committees should meet together at least once–preferably more often–before the student takes the comprehensive examination.
  
  
• Changes in the committee membership should be done in consultation with the committee chair. If a student wishes to change the chair of the committee, he or she should consult with the Graduate Director.

II. Comprehensive Examinations

• Every student should work with the doctoral committee to develop a coherent program of study that looks forward to the comprehensive examination and beyond to the doctoral dissertation and other professional research. The student should consult with individual committee members on a regular basis and arrange periodic meetings of the entire committee.
  
  
• By the beginning of the second year, students should have selected their examination areas. The committee may tailor readings and exams to the student’s individual needs, but should follow some general guidelines: a) no examination area should be a mere subset of another area–for example, if Renaissance is the major field and poetry a secondary field, the latter should not be confined to Renaissance poetry; b) the examination area should not be defined too narrowly–for instance, readings in a historical period should cover the range of genres, and genre preparation in all areas should include not only primary texts but also acquaintance with the relevant historical contexts and current critical debates. If the committee decides that its existing membership is not fully qualified to guide the student in a particular area, then it may consider adding an additional member for the purpose of the examination.

• Full-time students are expected to take the comprehensive examination no later than the end of the second year in the program. Any extension beyond that point requires a petition with full justification to the Graduate Studies Committee. All curricular requirements for the degree must be fulfilled by the end of the semester in which the student is taking the exam. The student, in agreement with the doctoral committee, sets the precise date, but the exam must be scheduled at least three weeks prior to the last day of classes for the semester. The English Graduate Office must be notified by the student at least two weeks prior to the exam in order to process Graduate School forms. The student must be registered for at least 1 credit in the semester during which the exam is taken. Summer session is included if exams are scheduled during this time.
  
  
• The structure of the examination is laid out in the Graduate Student Handbook . Individual members of the committee may be responsible for preparing specific areas of the examination, but the entire committee should review the exam before it is administered, and should read all of the student’s work once it is completed.
  
  
• After the examination the committee chair should notify the English Graduate Office of the results. In the event that the student fails one or more parts of the exam, the doctoral committee will decide whether the student should retake the exam in its entirety or only those parts that he or she has failed. It may also recommend against retaking the exam and ask the graduate studies committee to review the student’s overall performance in the program.

III. Doctoral Dissertation

1. After passing the comprehensive examination, the student may modify committee membership to suit the specific needs of thesis research. Such changes should be made as quickly as possible.
   
   
2. Students who have passed the comprehensive exam should turn immediately to the doctoral dissertation. Thesis proposal forms are available upon request from the Graduate Office and proposals must be approved by the doctoral committee and submitted to the graduate office no later than ninety (90) days after the completion of the comprehensive exams.
   
   
3. Guidelines for writing the thesis and taking the final oral examination appear on pp. 8-9 of the graduate handbook.